China expels journalists over stories of party's wealth

Jan. 29, 2014
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Part of Austin Ramzy's Twitter profile. / Austin Ramzy

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

BEIJING - The latest expulsion of a U.S. reporter in China on Thursday shows how the new regime is far more worried about criticism of top leaders - especially when it comes to the amassing of wealth - than in the past.

Chinese journalists cannot cover stories the regime wants kept quiet, but in the age of the Internet, stories by Western news media can make their way into China.

The stories China targets most are those that expose the tremendous wealth owned by close relatives of top Communist Party leaders. China is not targeting the reporters who write the stories but the news organizations that employ them.

China has sentenced to long terms Chinese citizens who called for an accounting of what the Communist Party owns.

"Our two countries should be expanding media exchanges to enhance mutual understanding and trust, not restricting the ability of journalists to conduct their work," said U.S. Embassy spokesman Nolan Barkhouse. "We have raised our concerns about the treatment of journalists and media organizations repeatedly at the highest levels of the Chinese government, and we will continue to do so."

Barring a last-minute, and highly unlikely, change of heart by the Chinese government, New York Times reporter Austin Ramzy will fly out of Beijing on Thursday, the day his visa expires. Ramzy, 39, will become the second reporter for the newspaper in 13 months forced to leave mainland China.

"These technical arguments are disingenuous; the visa rules are unclear and have not been applied to other foreign correspondents," said Peter Ford, president of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China. "The government is punishing the Times for the content of its coverage. ... It seems as simple as that," he said.

Official corruption is one of China's hottest topics. The ruling Communist Party says it can handle the problem internally and refuses to allow public or independent supervision of government and party officials. Sunday, a Beijing court jailed rights activist Xu Zhiyong for four years for encouraging citizens to lobby for officials to disclose their assets.

The wealth of the party elite is an open secret in China, but Bloomberg and the Times broke ground in 2012 by documenting the riches accumulated by relatives of then-premier Wen Jiabao and President Xi Jinping, the party leader.

Beijing responded by blocking the companies' websites in China and refusing to issue visas to new correspondents. The government has not acted on applications for Bloomberg journalists meant to replace at least five former employees at its Beijing bureau, the Times reported Tuesday.

Chris Buckley, formerly of Reuters in Beijing, had to leave China in late 2012 when authorities did not process his application for a new visa as a Times reporter. He works from Hong Kong, while his family remains in Beijing. Philip Pan has been waiting almost two years for his visa to work as the Times' Beijing bureau chief.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Monday that Ramzy, hired by the Times last summer after six years of working in China for Time magazine, broke visa rules by staying in China on his "old" but valid visa, which was linked to his job at Time.

"The NY Times, following rules, handed Foreign Ministry a visa application for Austin Ramzy last June. They have not approved it," Edward Wong, acting Beijing bureau chief for the paper, tweeted Monday.

Last month, Vice President Biden raised journalist visa problems with his counterparts during a visit to the Chinese capital. In late December, more than two dozen journalists working for Bloomberg and the Times in China were finally able to process long-delayed visa renewals for themselves and their families.

Chinese authorities have regularly broken promises made before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to improve the reporting environment for foreign journalists. Restrictions remain on traveling to certain areas, and local officials regularly intimidate interviewees. Harassment of foreign journalists, sometimes violent, remains common, as seen outside the courthouse where Xu Zhiyong was tried last Wednesday.

"I am deeply concerned that police mistreated foreign journalists who were covering the Xu Zhiyong trial," said the outgoing U.S. ambassador to China, Gary Locke. "I urge Chinese authorities to take measures to ensure that foreign reporters working in China are able to carry out their journalistic responsibilities in accordance with internationally recognized conventions."